Trinity 18

Details

These amps sound and feel like bona fide Marshalls, albeit quieter, with a design “borrowed” from the early Watkins Dominator circuit. The truly exhibit the much sought after, famous Marshall crunch. Marshall 18 Watt amps were built between 1966 and 1968, or so, and only a few hundred were made.
The two-channel amplifier does away with negative feedback, allowing the amplifier to run “open loop” or wide band. This is why the 18 Watt sounds full and rich at low or high volume levels. These ‘features of design’ are very much a part of the distinctive tone.

I have to tell you: it sounds so amazingly incredibly fricken good. It's so much better than what I ever imagined it to be, it's response is fast and tight covering all frequencies - top frequencies are cutting their way through the air, with a lot of edge and it does NOT sound thin and disgusting. Mid-frequencies are in- your-face punchy, and the bottom end is so tight and clear. There are so many natural harmonics in this amp, I don't even know where to start.

Eivind, Sogne, Norway (Trinity 18 Plexi)

We have added to the tonal variety of the original by hand-building five 18 watt Marshall type amps to cover almost all of the Marshall era vintage tones. The sIII, TMB, Plexi, Plexi MkII and the v6. We can mix and match channel voicing, for example Plexi TMB channel with sIII Normal channel.

TMB

The Trinity 18 TMB is a dual channel amp with Channel 1 – Tone and Volume, 2 inputs and Channel 2 – Treble, Midrange, Bass, Volume and Gain, 2 inputs. The tone controls are of standard Marshall “Tone Stack” design. The TMB channel incorporates a gain control and is a higher gain design similar to the Marshall 2203 of the late 70s. The master volume allows the player to selectively dial in overdrive distortion for that ‘crunchy’ Marshall sound.

sIII

The two channel Trinity 18 sIII is based on the TMB version. The sIII channel 2 also incorporates a gain control but gain is not as high affording some additional headroom. The sIII is voiced to sound like a vintage Marshall amp – JTM-45 Bluesbreaker style. Channel 1 is the same design as the original Marshall 18 Watt Tremolo channel. Channels can be jumped for even more complex sounds. This amp is great for reproducing the tones of the early Marshall years.

Plexi

The Plexi design is voiced to sound period correct for a Marshall Plexi Lead. Screaming guitar lead tones at a much lower volume. The amp can thump and grind with less compressed tone than the other 18 watt variants. The normal Channel provides way more overdrive than most 18 watt normal channels while the Plexi channel is capable of the best clean sound we have ever heard come out of an 18 watter. With a pair of greenbacks, you’ll be shocked how period correct it sounds. Crank up the gain and you are in crunch tone heaven. The clean boost just adds another dimension, it nails all those old AC-DC tones dead on and has way more gain on tap if needed.

Plexi Mk II

The Plexi Mk II design is based on the Plexi Super Lead preamp design with selected “Brown” components. This gets you very close to Eddie van Halen sound. Hot licks but with a very surprising clean tone with gain turned down. This baby can move some real air moving! Crank up that normal channel and it really gives up the goods! Lot’s of crunchy to high gain AC/DC tones for days. The Plexi TMB side cranked up is equally great going from clean to mean. Leave the gain low and crank the master and there is quite a lot of headroom with big fat cleans. The fat switch fattens it up the TMB channel and just makes it a bit fuller spectrum of sound.
Plexi Mk II Clip by unimind

v6

The v6 adds switchable output tubes and foot switchable boost. In this design, you can switch in 6V6 or the EL84 output tubes. The sound is close to a Fender Deluxe and an 18 watt grafted together.

Features

Our Trinity 18 amplifiers are built using point-to-point wiring and turret board construction for service and reliability. High-quality tubes, coupling capacitors and resistors are selected for maximum tone, performance and reliability.

There are High and Low inputs for both channels.

The power transformer and output transformer are built to the original Marshall specifications and use vintage grade steel laminations.

The Marshall colour correct gold plexi front panel is painstakingly manufactured on Plexiglas using the original lamination process so it looks authentic and the chassis rear side is silk-screened.

Other Tolex, grill cloths and hardware are available and priced upon request.

Audio Samples

These clips were generously provided by Lawrence Bethune, Billy The Mountain and Gary Cox.

Once again, Lawrence Bethune played and recorded with the Trinity 18 for over a week and he has provided us with plenty of musical material to share. Listen to some samples below and we think you’ll be convinced!

Billy The Mountain is a band with the purpose of bringing the misfortune of others – children in particular – to global attention.

Hailing from the United Kingdom, Gary Cox, of The Gary Cox Band, is a renowned slide guitarist. Gary is playing a Lonestar Strat into the sIII amp through a 1×12″ Greenback and Shure SM57.